Page 17 of Austin
“I’ll try not to.”
“If you do, I’ll drop you at the nearest truck stop.” He was only half-kidding.
“Noted.” She spoke with a straight face, disappointing him in a way, but he was sore and tired and needed to get some sleep. A few hours anyway. Verbal antics could wait. Time to cut to the chase.
“Give me your phone.” Kristen handed it over more easily than he’d expected and he entered his number in it, then sent himself a text. His phone chimed and he handed her phone back and put the truck in gear. Her car was one of the few still left in the spectator part of the lot.
“I thought you sold your car?”
“This is my roommate’s car.”
He stopped close to the little Ford and Kristen opened the door. “Better give me your address.”
She rattled it off and he entered it in his map app. “Okay. Tomorrow. Five-thirty sharp. Pack light.”
*
Kristen unlocked Lynn’scar and got inside. Once the engine started, Austin pulled out of the lot, but he waited at the four-way stop until she came up behind him. She followed him as far as the Legacy, then continued on to south Reno.
She had her ride to Salt Lake City. Now all she had to do was to pack light and be ready to go at five-thirty, which was about six hours away. Lynn was already in bed when she let herself into the apartment, but her roomie padded out into the living room in bare feet not long after she closed the door. From inside Lynn’s room, her boyfriend snored softly.
“Did everything work out?”
Kristen tried to look upbeat as she said, “It did. I have a ride to Salt Lake and I can catch the bus there. He’ll pick me up at five-thirty tomorrow.”
Lynn brushed back her hair. “Early.”
“I know. But…” she gave a small shrug as if traveling with Austin was her preferred method of travel “…he’s on a schedule.”
“I looked up your bull riding friend while you were gone.” She pretended to fan her face. “He’s something. In fact, every guy on that tour is something. Kind of makes me want to come along.”
“I’d love to have you along.” The words were heartfelt. A buffer would be a godsend, but it wasn’t going to happen. It would be just her and Austin—and his ranch friends, of course—for the next day or two.
If he could take it, so could she.
She said good night to Lynn and headed to her room, where she pulled out her suitcase and started packing. She hadn’t brought a lot to Lynn’s place, so it didn’t take long to throw clothes she’d need for the trip into the bag. Her work wardrobe hung untouched in the narrow closet and Kristen stood, hands on hips, studying it. Investment pieces. High-end skirts and jackets. Crazy expensive shoes. Dress for the level of employment you want to attain, she’d been taught, so she had.
And gotten laid off.
She stroked the pale gray silk and wool blend blazer hanging in front of her. Her last major splurge/investment. Her mouth flattened for a moment, then she pulled it out of the closet along with the shell pink skirt and white silk top that went with it. Nothing saying she wasn’t going to interview in the near future. The firms in Reno might be ignoring her, but that didn’t mean there weren’t firms in Montana hiring.
She rolled the suit in a dry-cleaning bag and made room for it in her suitcase, along with her Christian Louboutins. With a defiant twist of her lips, she closed the suitcase. She was not going to feel guilty about investment pieces. Poor planning, yes. Shoes that would last forever, no.
Even if she now wished she’d put off buying them until she’d been just a wee bit more secure.
The last thing she dealt with was her Silver Bow ‘uniform’, the cost of which would be deducted from her first paycheck, leaving her with next to nothing, except for her tips. She wadded it up and stuffed it into a plastic bag. The bootie shoes that killed her feet went in on top. Waste of money, but what could she do? Regrets weren’t going to help her move forward.
She tiptoed out of the room and set down her suitcases next to the door and dumped the plastic bag with the costume into the trash. If she went to sleep right now, she’d get close to five hours.
Ifshe went to sleep right now.
Fat chance, that.
*
Kristen knew shelooked like hell when Austin parked in front of her apartment complex early the next morning. She’d tried to brighten her overly pale face with blush, ended up looking like a feverish clown, and scrubbed it off just before he arrived. She didn’t need to impress him, or be intimidated by him, so she was annoyed that her heart beat faster as she let herself out of the apartment.
It wasn’t the prospect of sparring with Austin for the next few of days that had her feeling edgy—it was the unknowns in her future. She had no job, a big confession to make, a branding with people she didn’t know.
